


The Undead Timeline

by Bi_Slitheen



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Crack, Dave is a zombie, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28841631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bi_Slitheen/pseuds/Bi_Slitheen
Summary: As Vanya tried to fall asleep in Five's extra sleeping bag, she could have sworn she heard growling, but every time she turned around, there was nothing. No matter what, she couldn't help but feel an impending doom that something was about to attack her. She was living every young boy's ultimate nightmare, a zombie apocalypse. "You'll get used to it.", Five said, his eyes still shut.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Lila Pitts, Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	The Undead Timeline

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is basically just the Umbrella Academy fam being chaotic in the Apocalypse, I should update it with new chapters at least once a week. Hope you enjoy!

Some kind of rhythm found itself pulsating in Vanya's head. She was holding it carefully, trying to alleviate the immense pressure, feeling that it would shatter at any moment. "Vanya!", a familiar voice, young and male, spoke. "Vanya!" The young woman looked up to see green grass and birch trees as far as the eye can see. To the left of her, she saw a man with a long black beard, a rifle over his shoulder, in leather gear carrying a pale mannequin. "Vanya!" "What?" "I haven't seen you in so long!" The man went to hug her, which made her flinch slightly in confusion. "Who are you?" "Vanya, it's me. Five." She looked at the mannequin. "Oh. Five, You look so different." The girl said, looking at someone she knew was her brother, but didn't recognize. "Vanya, do you not know what happened?" She shook her head. "Sit down." Vanya looked down at the grassy hill which she stood upon and placed herself on it. Five sat down with her, "You remember that we were in the year 1964, right? Diego was hell-bent on stopping Kennedy's assassination?" "Yeah." "And then we reunited and decided to go back home." "Yeah." "We never went home, instead we landed here, maybe the worst spot to do so." "Five, where's here?" "Well the current year is 2023, and we're in the middle of the first great zombie apocalypse. See why I told you to sit down?" "Zombies?" Vanya smirked. "You're joking." She stared into Five's eyes to discover them humorless and deadpan. "Look." He stuck out a finger to the horizon. She looked out to see a figure of a man with bloodied and torn flesh, his leg tied to a pole. "Those are the guard dogs. I keep them up so I can know if any of the others are coming." "Oh god, this is really happening, isn't it? What? Zombies just exist now?" Five nodded. "I'm sorry, but I've been in this for five years, you have to accept this." "Five years?! Where are the others?" Five picked at his beard. "That's what I've been trying to figure out."

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Diego's knife scraped against the sharpener repeatedly as he felt Lila's hand on his shoulder. "Oh, hey, babe." She pecked him on the lips, "Hi. You better, hurry up. That one looks hungry." He laughed, "I'm hurrying." He looked up to see an infected, two yards away from him. As the creature inched closer and closer, he aimed his silver knife carefully, finally throwing into the air and landing it in between the zombie's eyes. Diego smiled at Lila, "Oh come on, that was some beast mode shit. You gotta agree, my aim's getting better every day." "Watch and learn, lover-boy." She picked up a pencil and proceeded to throw it to the left of her, they both stared at each other for about thirty seconds, and the pencil came back as Lila caught in the air, a bit of brain pierced through it. "Show off." She laughed, "And you aren't?" Diego laughed for a second, and then the joy suddenly dropped from his face. "What? Oh, you're thinking about them again, aren't you?" "They're out there somewhere, Lila, I know it. They're you're family too, you know." "Oh, really? Does that make you my brother then, because considering what we did this morning, that's a pretty fucking weird sibling relationship." "Ok, maybe family is the wrong word. But regardless, they're my family, and they care for you just as much as I do." "We're safe, Diego. The undead that just approached is one of the few that approach us every week. We are lucky, we can't throw that safety away for a shot at seeing your siblings, I'm sorry, but we just can't." "You don't get it, Lila." "I guess I don't." 

______________________________

"I just can't believe you've been out here for five years." Vanya said, eating the roasted squirrel that Five cooked up in the fire which illuminated them. "That means you're what, 19?" "Yeah, normally it would." Five laughed. "It's strange, looking at you, all grown up. I mean obviously, you grew up a long time ago, but this is different." "Try to be endearing to me again and I may have to shoot you.", Five teased as Vanya laughed. "Hey, I'm sorry you had to go through this again. The first apocalypse must have been awful, but going through it again, I can't imagine." "Hey, hey. It's not that bad. I have Delores here, and now I have you. And hopefully, pretty soon, we'll have our family back." Five stared into the night sky as the siblings heard the cricket's melodies. "I just feel bad you know? Like I caused this somehow." "You didn't. Not even remotely, even when we were in the 60's you showed great control over your power. Vanya, you don't have to worry anymore." Hearing those words were odd to her, but as she laid her head back and looked at the stars, she felt that everything was going to be ok. "So, I've been searching for our family all this time. For some reason I was separated from them all, I landed in the Mojave desert five years ago, and man, that heat combined with rotten flesh makes for such an awful smell. Right now, we're in Tennessee, even you landed here. I still don't know why I landed so far away." "Why did it take you so long to get here?" "Well, I had to find everybody. Including you, who luckily appeared on the way to the rest. All of our family are in that city, Vanya." Five pointed behind him, and Vanya looked to see a cityscape with a larger skyscraper that protruded from the others, which she recognized. "Memphis." "Yep." "Well, how do you know?" "I've had five years to study the time waves for anomalies, and they all point to Memphis. I was sad to see that there were only five, disregarding Ben that meant somebody was missing, but thankfully you showed up just in time. Which confirms that all of our family are in that city. I don't know anymore beyond that, the readings aren't too precise." "At least we know that they're there. I don't know if you want to talk about it, but how have these years been for you, Five?" Vanya put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Are you ok?" "As I said, it's ok." The old man picked at the grass. "I mean it hasn't been great. At least last time there weren't monsters trying to me everywhere I went but beyond that. It's another thing I have to fix. But it'll be alright, in the end." "Yeah." The siblings stared into the fire, trying to ignore the situation around them. "We should go to sleep. Big day tomorrow.", Five said, extinguishing the fire. 

As Vanya tried to fall asleep in Five's extra sleeping bag, she could have sworn she heard growling, but every time she turned around, there was nothing. No matter what, she couldn't help but feel an impending doom that something was about to attack her. She was living every young boy's ultimate nightmare, a zombie apocalypse. "You'll get used to it.", Five said, his eyes still shut. 

She opened her eyes once again, not to find herself in the Umbrella Academy homestead, but instead on the same grassy hill, by the same brother which she took difficulty in recognizing. "How was your sleep?" "Awful." "Yeah, mine were too at first. Come on, we got a big day planned ahead of us." "Five, I don't think I can do this." She gulped thin air. "I mean, you've been doing this for five years, and I just a bit ago discovered who I really was, I can't walk into a zombie-infested city, I just can't." "Vanya, you are more powerful than you can even imagine, ok? And if you are ever in trouble, I will protect you, you're my sister." When he said this she felt better and realized something about her brother had changed (besides his deeper voice and new beard.) Maybe he had gotten more compassionate or wiser, or maybe both. "We'll be ok, Vanya. I promise. If I survived for five years, I know you can survive for however long this takes us. Ok?" Vanya nodded her head in agreement and stood up from her sleeping bag. "Alright, we'll be in the city in about two hours if we keep up a steady pace, you ready?" "Yeah, I'm ready." The siblings started walking toward the city, the sunrise illuminating them as they began their new journey.

Vanya felt odd as she walked on the cracked roads, feeling that the roads should not be cracked in the first place. Out of all of the timelines they could have landed in, it had to be another apocalypse. "Hey, Five?" "Yeah?" "How did you find Delores again?" Five had a look on his face Vanya couldn't decipher, then put his hands over the mannequin's ears. "It's another Delores, not the same one. But don't tell her, I don't want her to get jealous!" Vanya laughed, "Ok, ladies man." He shot her a dirty look. "Ok!" Vanya said, dropping her smile. Five removed his ears from the mannequin as he saw a green sign stating, "Memphis, 1 mile". "Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes. You can do this Vanya, I promise you. Here, take this." He gave his sister a silenced pistol. "It won't alert the horde. You probably won't need it because of your powers, but just in case." "Five, why are you being so kind to me? I don't deserve it." "Maybe not. But I know what this world can do to people, you need all the protection you can get. Come on, let's go."

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Klaus noticed the dirtiness of his fingernails as he searched through the garbage bin, scurrying for any food he could find that wasn't rotten beyond recognition. The head tied to his hip growled and he swatted at it. "Shut up Dave, you get fingers all the time. I'm really fucking hungry for once." The head growled once again and Klaus took it by the hair and lifted it up to his face. He looked into his partner's eyes, the same ones that he saw during Vietnam, and spoke to them. "Listen, Dave, I love you, I really do. But you need to understand that I am super hungry, and while I am searching for food, I have to have silence, ok?" The head quit it's growling as Klaus swung it back to his hip. "Just a few more minutes of scrounging Dave, it'll be fine." As he searched through all the junk food, he was saddened to see all of it was years old. He laid down on a sofa that was lodged in between the dumpster walls. "I can't believe this Dave, it smells like shit and I didn't even get food. Of course, it always smells like shit for you, huh pal?" "Grrrrrrrr."

The lovers were interrupted by the sound of a shooting rifle, which startled Klaus. He peeked up from the dumpster and looked into the tiny window of sight that he had to see from, besides the brick wall in front of him, he looked to the left to see two figures in blue suits shooting at some infected, one wearing a pink mascot mask, and the other wearing a blue mask. He couldn't believe his eyes, "What?! No! What are they doing here?" As he saw them turn and start walking towards the dumpster, he jumped back in and hid. "I really can't do this right now, Dave. There's no reason they should be here. This shit is not ok." As he heard the steps approaching, he noticed his heart beating wildly. Looking up into the darkness, his worst fears became true. A hand lifted up the container opening, and Klaus saw two mascot heads in front of him. He smiled, "Hi. How are you?" As he was hoping his week-old eyeliner would win them over, Hazel's gargantuan hand landed on his head with a heavy THUMP, he lost consciousness.

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As Vanya stared at the bleached billboard sign, Five bumped into her. "Vanya, look." She looked up to see three undead walking slowly, twenty yards away. "Alright, target practice?", Five asked. "Ok." "Alright just raise your pistol, and pull the trigger." Vanya felt her hand raise, aiming the sights on the infected head, she pulled the trigger, and with a loud bang, saw it slump down instantly. "Alright, pretty good shot." She quickly pulled the trigger twice again, but when she heard the bang of the third shot, a flash of Pogo's dead eyes appeared in her brain, blood dripping from his mouth. Pogo was like a father to her, and she would never forget what she did. Suddenly, Vanya felt like the young girl separated from everyone else once again. She fell to the ground and held her head up, tears falling down from her hands. "Vanya?" She shook her head, "I can't do this, I can't do it." "Yes you can, I know you can." "Five, I am such an awful person." "Vanya! Listen to me!" She felt her brother's hand on her shoulder and looked up to see the bearded man with the same young boy's eyes. "I was this far away from shooting JFK, and I did end up shooting many others, I am much more of an awful person than you are, so please, let's go and find our family." She breathed in and out for a few seconds, shaking back and forth ever so slightly. “Vanya, you have nothing to worry about, ok?” With a few more breaths out, she nodded her head. “Ok.” Five offered a hand to his sister, who grabbed it and pulled herself up. “Only a bit more distance.”

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When Klaus opened his eyes again, he found himself tied in a cold chair, in the middle of a warehouse. "Oh, not again." "Shut up!" Cha-Cha's handgun whipped across his face and left an imprint on his jaw. "You're going to tell us why all the undead ignored us while we carried you here, who the fuck are you?" "Ok! Listen to me, just listen. That's all I'm asking. I'm obviously important, so can you just listen." Klaus's head peeked up to see a big man with a beard, and a darker skinnier woman. "I know who you are." "Oh, I don't have time for games." "I'm serious, Cha-Cha." The annoyance in the woman's face dropped and Hazel stopped eating his protein bar to focus on the torturee. "And you're Hazel." "Alright boy, now you have even more explaining to do, tell me who you are." "My name is Klaus, and we've done this before. It must be the new timeline. Ok, so before you shoot me, the reason the dead don't attack me is because I can speak with them, they respect me." "Is that why you have one of them on a leash?" "That's different." "Wow! You know I've seen a lot of nasty shit in my career but a dude and a zombie is a new level.", Hazel said, stuffing his face once again. "Hazel, I know that you have second thoughts about this career." "And what career would that be?", Cha-Cha demanded. "Well, I guess you aren't time agents anymore. If I had to guess I would say that you're probably survivors." "You guessed right." "But you two are on your own, you don't live in packs like the raiders or the hunters, so I'd also guess that you're desperate and probably just as hungry as I am." "Shut your mouth." Cha-Cha whipped him with the gun once again.

"Jesus, that was kind of brutal." "I agree." "Again, shut up. And Hazel, get your head in the game." "Yeah, yeah. Just damn, you know?" "Will you come over and put that shit down? We don't have that much of it, you know." "Yeah, I know. Listen, Explain how you talk to the dead." "I've always been able to talk to the dead, but before I came to this timeline the dead were really dead, so it was useful but not immensely useful, kind of like you guys. Then when I dropped into this timeline, the dead were walking, and instead of eating me, they just talked to me and I talked back to them. It's amazing!" Cha-Cha laughed. "Alright, we got a motherfucking junkie on our hands." Klaus felt his blood boil for a split second, not only because he was being truthful, but also because among all the chaos, being surrounded by the dead, not seeing his family, he hadn't used drugs once, it would have been so easy to just give in, but he never did. "Hazel, I know you're having second thoughts about this whole thing, maybe you should shoot her?" "Alright motherfucker, seriously shut that mouth before I shoot your goddamn head off!", Cha-Cha said, suspecting that what Klaus was saying was true.

As Klaus stared down the barrel of the gun, he gulped and prepared to become fully reunited with Dave. He clenched his eyes shut, but heard something fly through the air, and with a quick grunt, liquid flew onto his face. He opened his eyes to see an arrow through Cha-Cha's forehead. "Gah!" Klaus jumped back as much as he could as his torturer's body slumped to the ground. Hazel raised his hands and threw his pistol to the side, "Don't kill me! I hated her ok! Don't kill me!" A feminine figure in brown robes came into Klaus's vision. Hazel, frightened, stared at her. She removed her cloth and cupped her ear, "I heard a rumor you told me where your supplies were." Klaus jumped again up as Hazel told her, "The supplies are in that back room, two lefts, one right." He pointed to the location. "Allison! It's me!" The woman looked at Klaus, removing her hood and mask completely and rushing to her brother. "Klaus!" She had a gleeful look on her face. "What were they doing to you?" "Torturing me, which isn't anything new, you recognize them, right?" She looked to Hazel and laughed, "Oh, yeah. You're that motherfucker with the mascot helmet." "How do you guys know who we are, are you really from a different timeline?" Allison laughed, "I guess my brother told you, huh?" "Yeah. Listen, you two seem to know more than I do, and I'm just trying to make it in this world. Wherever you're going, can I come with you?" "How do I know I can trust you?" "Allison, Five trusted him, he told me when we were in 1964. I don't think he's gonna betray us." "Alright, if Klaus says you're ok, you can come with us. But you do any shady shit and..." Allison pointed to Cha-Cha laying on the floor, an arrow sitting lodged in her head. "Yeah. I know." "Where are we going, Klaus?" "Get me untied first." "Oh yeah." Allison took a pocket knife and cut her brother free from his restraints. "Ok..." Klaus rubbed his wrists, "Let me go get Dave." "Dave? Isn't that the guy from Vietnam?" "Yeah, when the virus started, the ones down under became undead also. I don't know how, but he was one of the first I met, I decapitated him out of fear, but then I discovered I could talk to him, just like I could talk to the dead back home, then when I discovered it was Dave-" His voice wavered. "Well, I couldn't lose him again." Klaus walked over to the zombie's head and hooked it back to his hip leash. "Crazy shit huh?" Hazel joked to Allison, to which she gave an offended look. "Alright, sister, torturer man, I’m leaving." “What? where?” “To go get some nail polish, look at what this dude’s friend did.” Klaus raised his hand to Allison, who saw the polish scraped from his nail.

“So what you’re just gonna leave me here with him?” “Yeah.” “Hold up, why am I so bad?” “You torture people.” “Klaus. I haven’t seen you in so long, please don’t leave.” “I’ll only be gone a minute, you’ll know where to find me” Hazel chuckled, “I don’t see how unless you put up the bat signal.” “You guys have batman in this timeline?”, Allison asked. “From this.” Klaus walked behind some equipment in the warehouse and brought back a classic boombox. “Klaus, you’re gonna attract the horde with that thing!” “No I won’t, remember? They listen to me. Hazel, you have generators right?” “Yeah, back there.” “Ok, I’m gonna get this sexy thing juiced up and get some nail polish. You guys go mozy along and do whatever, when you hear ‘What is love?’ by Haddaway playing, that’s the sign to come and find me.” 

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Diego laid on his bed, Lila's arm across his chest. Thoughts were pummeling his head, thoughts of his brothers and sisters. He shimmied out of bed, being careful not to wake his lover up. Opening the door to the trailer, he felt the chilly air and night sky surrounding him. He sat down at a lawn chair, and looked back at his rinky-dink home, and sighed, rubbing his temples.

"Diego?" Lila saw him, stargazing with a slight look of fear in his eyes. "Hey, what are you doing?", She cheerily said, wrapping an arm around him. "I can't do it anymore, Lila." The cheer dropped, "Do what?" He gave a fake laugh, "Keep pretending they're not out there, somewhere. One of them is looking at these same stars, I know it, a-and I'm just sitting here. Sure, there's no danger, but honey, I feel like I haven't been living life without them." Lila scoffed, "We can't do this." "O-Oh, that's bullshit. Y-Y-Y-You know we can. Why are you scared of finding them? You’re more powerful than Vanya! We can survive out there!" "That's not what I'm scared of!" "Then what is it?! You’re stronger than me, what could you possibly be afraid of?!" "I'm scared that, if you see them again, you won’t want to be with me anymore. That all your love for me will transport over to them, and I’ll just wallow in this dirt" Diego stood up and wrapped his arms around her, she laid her head on his chest. The pair breathed in and out together. "You know that won't happen, I‘d never let it. I love you, Lila. Please, just, if you do anything for me ever, do this for me." "I love you too, Diego. Wherever you go, I go." He set his jaw on her head, exhaling all his grief away. At that moment all that existed was Diego and Lila, slightly dancing to comfort each other, the night sky above them.


End file.
